The first round the PDI Trophy Competition at Farnborough Camera Club in the 2021-22 season and this was an open round with two images. I was away so I missed the evening’s competition held in the hall.
Hanging around
This was from a workshop in May 2021 with Kate Byrne who is a professional classic and contemporary dancer. I was using my new camera for the first time in a studio.
Summary of judge’s comments
The judge didn’t have any technical issues with the image but would have liked more engagement with the girl in the portrait.In other words, he wanted her to be looking at you.
The cool assistant
This image was from one of the Summer meet-ups organised by Farnborough Camera Club. Over the Millennium Bridge I came upon a photo shoot outside one of the office buildings. The photographer and her assistant were next to one of the words that make up a quote from Virginia Wolfe.
Summary of judge’s comments
The judge didn’t have any technical issues with the image.He would have liked more separation between the assistant and the photographer and talked quite a bit about the ‘ape’ sign she was sitting on!
The scores
There were 40 images in this round in the Advanced Division.
‘Hanging around’ scored 8 and ‘The cool assistant’ scored 6.5.
The original images
‘Hanging around’:
ISO 100 105mm F8.0 1/125 sec
I adjusted exposure, saturation and vibrance before I tried many crops. In the original I had not left a lot of space next to Kate’s right arm and I decided to crop in very close to her face.
‘The cool assistant’:
ISO 100 35mm f/8.0 1/640 sec
After deciding on a crop I had to resort to Photoshop to remove another of the groups’ hands and camera. to the left of the “a”. I boosted vibrance, texture, saturation, clarity and dehaze.